Archives for May, 2012
Missouri prison deteriorating
Posted: May 24, 2012 | Tags: prisons, state funding
The oldest state prison west of the Mississippi, the Missouri State Penitentiary, once housed James Earl Ray, who was convicted of kiling the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. After the 150-year-old facility shut down in 2004, the prison became a tourist attraction in Jefferson City. But despite the prison's historical and financial value, the buildings have been left crumbling. As our summer intern, Samantha Sunne reports, the situation is being described as “demolition by neglect.” You can read and listen to her report for KBIA, an NPR affiliate.
New rules still don't cover immigrants
Posted: May 18, 2012 | Tags: immigration
A zero-tolerance policy and a set of new rules to protect against sexual assault and rape in prisons nationwide were announced Thursday by the Justice Department. The new rules come nearly a decade after Congress mandated new rape protections for those behind bars under the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) of 2003. But the new regulations won't immediately impact the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees immigration detention centers, as it still has 120 days to write its own rules to comply with PREA and another 240 days to finalize them.
The Investigative Reporting Workshop and PBS FRONTLINE documented ...
